Salem’s volunteer firefighters and paramedics could be in line for a raise. The Board of Selectmen on Thursday is expected to put the finishing touches on an ordinance that would provide a $1,000 property tax abatement for the town’s volunteer emergency responders.

Adam Benson

Salem’s volunteer firefighters and paramedics could be in line for a raise.

The Board of Selectmen on Thursday is expected to put the finishing touches on an ordinance that would provide a $1,000 property tax abatement for the town’s volunteer emergency responders.

It would replace a $400 cash stipend that’s offered.

“This is an issue of parity, for one thing. Several other towns around us, if not most of them, are already offering a similar abatement,” First Selectman Kevin Lyden said. “This is a small effort for recruitment and retention.”

For years, rescue crews in town were eligible for the yearly cash stipend, but officials said that’s not enough given the amount of training and preparation needed for licensing.

Last year, 42 people received the cash stipend, Lyden said.

Under terms of the proposed ordinance, volunteers who don’t own property would continue to receive the $400 allocation until he or she purchases land, when the $1,000 tax abatement perk would replace it.

Salem Volunteer Fire Company Chief Eugene Mairorano said the payment could help bolster ranks in the town’s two fire departments.

Add members

“I think we’ll see a jump in the numbers we have,” he said. “We have some people who aren’t very active, but now some who maybe have property. ... $1,000 off their taxes, that’s a little incentive.”

Patricia Crisanti, a member of the Salem Volunteer Fire Company since 1989, supports the town’s move.

“It’s better than anything else that’s been done,” she said. “I think it would be super, because that’s really giving the fire departments something to work for.”

She said implementing the abatement could make volunteering for emergency operations more attractive, given the regulations and intensive training that’s needed.

Municipalities in the state gained authority to offer the property tax abatements in 1999, when the General Assembly approved a measure providing for it.

The Salem Volunteer Fire Company and the Gardner Lake Fire Department are routinely used on mutual aid calls to other communities, including Montville. Crews from both companies assisted in combating a strip mall fire in Montville’s Oakdale section earlier this month.

Mairorano said the demands placed on volunteer rescuers and the danger of their work validates the new compensation plan.

“It’s a long time coming. Will it help? I don’t know,” he said. “We won’t know until we get it and put it into effect.”

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